SmilingThrough the Years

Griffiths
and Jones Family HistoryFrom
Wales to the USA and Africa

Four Griffiths Children Left to Right About 1910: Ethel, died of
whooping cough at Five;
Margaret, who became a Teacher; George, a future exec at Goodyear;
Wayne, who became a doctor
Say hello to the Webmaster (Richard Griffith) HERE
A sound file of the webmaster singing SMILING THROUGH

Smiling Through is a song that
I heard on the BBC once
and memorized the
first time I heard it. It is a very simple song
that I fell
in love with, and a few months later, I sang it a
capella
at my wedding to Kimberly Ann. The older people in
the
church had
tears in their eyes, and to me they were tears of
joy. It
also reflects a very 'British' theme of success and cheer through long
and difficult years that life brings. The values of these two
families came from life in
the oldest mountain range on Earth, in North Wales, where the hard old
stones lie amidst the patches of green. If you want to hear me singing
this song, click SMILING THROUGH

Richard and Kim on Mount Snowdon's slope
This website is intended to look back through the longing years of
hardship to the Griffith family, miners who emigrated from Blaenau
Ffestiniog, Wales at the
end of the last century, and have emerged still smiling through this
vale of tears, enduring the tests of this world and the next. It also
contrasts the Jones family of Mount Vernon New York , England, and
Africa. In particular, these are pictures and stories of Welsh
immigrants to America, to Poultney, Vermont, where the Founder of the
New York Times was born and raised, and Mount Vernon, New York, which
saw the successful rise of a middle class.